Advanced Studies Update: Missions!

It's official! Missions have launched! The Order of the Phoenix has put together a Midwinter Conference Convergence Thingie (their words, not mine) for our intrepid agents to participate in to help hone their skills. There are two categories that agents could choose from: Training Opportunities or Camp Activities.

92 industrious Ravenclaw set off on missions. Of those 92, 43 departed for training while 49 stuck a little closer to home to participate in camp activities.

The tireless Ravenclaws that decided to hone their skills through rigorous training chose one course out of 4 choices. 6 Ravenclaws are learning new wand techniques and perfecting old wand work. 9 Ravenclaws are working on their Muggle disguises. 18 Ravenclaws are learning how to find their way out of almost every situation through orienteering and 10 Ravenclaws are emulating MacGyver and thinking outside of the box.

 

 

The Ravenclaws that took part in camp activities could choose one path out of 4 choices. 20 Ravenclaws chose to expand their knowledge about nature. 2 Ravenclaws decided that there wasn't anything that they would rather do than have a pillow fight. 15  Ravenclaw book worms had adventures by tunneling into a good book and 12 vivacious Ravenclaws thought they'd try some calisthenics.

 I can't wait to see what our operatives accomplish when they return back to the Order! Soar Ravenclaw!!

Advanced Studies Update: December Newtlings

While the rest of us took a month off, 7 courageous NEWTlings set off on journeys to investigate many different branches of study. Let's take a closer look!

For all projects, click on the student’s name to see the proposal.

TwistedSticherFGE is attempting to do a spin to knit garment by spinning the yarn for a hitofude and then knitting it! She is combining Astronomy as she studies Saturn's rings and the light lacy yarn for Charms. She has chosen some fiber that will represent Saturn's rings and will spin 12 oz of Polworth into a 2 ply light fingering weight yarn and then use it to knit the hitofude. The colors that she chose to represent Saturn's rings are absolutely gorgeous!

Mrswingnut is going to be valiantly fighting against the cruciatus curse in her studies of Defense against the Dark Arts by consulting her dreams through divination! She will be knitting the challenging Butterfly/Papillon and also Roiling Waters. Making these two patterns are like a dream come true to her. They are similar but very challenging and I can't wait to see them come together!

Cn32 is next with her study of Herbology and Muggle Studies. She will be making a hitofude out of her own handspun, using up as much yarn as she can out of her 2,000 yards. She will also be studying botany by making floral squares. 9 squares will be 9 inches across and one will be bigger to make up a blanket of at least 4 feet square with a border of her own handspun!

SaskiaBr is combining Potions and Muggle Studies to make a beautiful pastel Aphrodite, a big Find Your Fade and as many accessories as she needs to use up about 3,000 yards. She will be using greys and neutrals as the base colors of her Aphrodite and combine the pinks (and maybe whites) to make the stripes. Her Fade will go from pinks to white to grey. If needed, she will make legwarmers, a pair of colorwork mittens or a hat to make up the yardage. These coordinating pastel creations will be amazing when they are finished!

Caranam will be combining Muggles Studies and Potions by making two adult sweaters, Cabeladabra and Enchanted Mesa. Cabeladabra has many complicated cables in it, as you might have guessed from the title and Enchanted Mesa has well over 3 colors in it. Caranam will be adding a delightful twist by using colors from a yarn advent calendar (yes you did hear that right and we're all very, very jealous) to make up Enchanted Mesa.

S2five will be combining Ancient Runes and History of Magic to make a beautiful colorwork cowl possibly worn by Durmstrang students in the mid 1800's. It will study colorwork from this time period through 18 complex charts and over 1800 yards of a very beautiful cream and tonal grey. This is only her third stranded colorwork pattern!

Keres is combining Runes and Potions in a NEWT to make a gorgeous multicolored shawl. It will be knit from 10 charts and she will use both intarsia and stranded colorwork to achieve her final product. She will be using a staggering 2 or 3 dozen colors in this shawl! She will also be using two new to her techniques of splicing and trapping to complete this NEWT!

End of Term AS Round-up

There were many, many spectacular Advanced Studies projects this term, as always in our house! There were so many to choose from that I decided I would focus on two groups of people that really went the distance: Our newest OWL Mistresses and our NEWT finishers!

First off, our illustrious new OWL Mistresses! Eight Ravenclaws achieved this honor this term: knitsNhikes, Hreow, Caranam, SadieLou, llim, keres, lsgarner, and squeaking in at the last minute, senkatnovo!

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Though of course if I really wanted to show off the amount of work they put in I would post the results of all their previous 11 OWLs! I think you can all admire their newest projects and see just how lovely their previous work must have been.

And of course our marvelous NEWTers! This term six Ravenclaws made it to the end of their NEWT projects: kvaustin, leahandthedragon, bchapman1017, knittingIma, xamonster, and soprano1!

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Great work to all our OWL Mistresses and NEWTers and everyone else who turned in Advanced Studies this term!

Firstie Friday: AS Update!

Now that the term has ended, it's time to report on our fantastic Firsties that attempted Advanced Studies their first Sorted term. We had four fearless Firsties submit projects.

Missions Managed!

Taleweaver completed a cozy, comfy Snuggle for her local SPCA. This thick blanket will serve to comfort a dog waiting for their fur-ever home.

Lynn4MK submitted a gorgeous blue partial cowl for her Mission. It's positively beautiful in its' partial state, and will be exquisite when finished.

Outstanding OWLs!

Masschroeder earned her Arithmancy OWL with 4 pairs of gift socks including a charming pair of Hufflepuff striped socks and three pairs of beautifully textured footwear.

Mooseloon completed her Herbology OWL with a gorgeous sweater made from New Zealand wool to match a sweater made for a friend. 

Congratulations to our amazing First Years for their fabulous accomplishments!

Advanced Studies Update!

The first month of term has nearly come to a close, so I think that makes it time to look back at how our Advanced Studies students are doing!

First off, our intrepid NEWTers! We have 11 of them this term, and three of them have turned in their 50% checkpoints so far: our wonderful Head Girl gwenschweitzer, kvaustin, and LeahandtheDragon!

Gwen has finished a beautiful Wonder Woman wrap:

As well as making great progress on another beautiful shawl:

kvaustin has completed a really lovely dress:

She has also knitted what may look like the start of a blanket, but is actually the hem of what will surely end up being a really spectacular vest!

LeahandtheDragon has done a whole bunch of fiber prep and spun many fiber samples!

I think my favorite part is all this lovely wool dyed with natural dyeing techniques, which I can't wait to see spun up!

We haven't reached any checkpoints yet for OWLs, but here are a few examples of progress made from our 94 OWL students, pulled from our Advanced Studies thread:

wendebular has reached 20% of a beautiful grey sweater!

SaskiaBr has 30% of a really gorgeous Find Your Fade!

lsgarner is also working on a Find Your Fade!

bookwormdjibouti has started what is clearly going to be a really gorgeous Celestarium!

BarnOwl has two hats and part of a scarf finished!

Order of the Phoenix Missions have only been going a few days, but I have found a couple of brave Order Agents who shared their progress so far in their dorms:

Firstie qtinki has finished the first of her eight hats!

keres has started this beautiful cabled wrap!

So all in all, it looks like Ravenclaw is being its usual impressive self in Advanced Studies this term. It makes me want to push on and get my own OWL past the 7% it's been sitting at for a week. Keep up the good work, everyone!

Fun Stats in the Tower: AS Proposal Edition!

This week saw the deadline for OWL proposals as well as the end of the BROOM submission period, so this is a great time to have a look at how the numbers shook out!

Here are the number of BROOMs approved per prompt:

The numbers vary a lot! Alastor Moody and the Department of Magical Education tied for fewest at 12 each, while Shell Cottage was clearly the favorite this time at a whopping 97! Hopefully Chief knitandfiber can lead all of her many agents home safely!

The OWL numbers are a bit hard to gather at this point as proposals only closed yesterday and there are a few left pending, but this is the best count I could manage of OWL subject proposals so far:

Unsurprisingly the new OWL-Mistresses-Only Alchemy option is lowest, with only eight taking that subject, but the rest have a reasonably even distribution, from 20 Divination OWLs to 42 Muggle Studies OWLs!

I thought it might be interesting to break these out a bit more, and see how many Ravenclaw proposals there were in each subject:

Much less even, this way! We're really going for it in Ancient Runes this term and we have just one lonely Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL proposal. We're rooting for you, Fregn88!

No matter what Advanced Studies you proposed, or if you chose to skip them this time around, it looks like there's going to be a lot of fabulous projects coming out of Ravenclaw this term. Now that we've got the proposals in, it's time to get the crafting done!

Advanced Studies Update -- NEWTling Edition, part 2!

Now for the second half of our NEWT proposal showcase!  As before, click on each student’s name to see the proposal.

Soprano1 leads off this half of our NEWTlings.  Soprano will be combining Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies in her study of the Mediwitch Paris Geller as depicted in the documentary series Gilmore Girls.  She will  create a set of colorwork accessories (scarf, hat, mittens, fingerless mitts) with the use of charts.  They look to be a lovely set; I’m looking forward to seeing them competed!

Greenheron is up next.  As befitting one of her species, she will be hatching a clutch of eggs, combining Care of Magical Creatures and Potions for her NEWT. Her study of the endangered Occamy, Norwegian Ridgeback, and Fwooper will consist of a shawl and two sweaters.  Can’t wait to see these magical creatures interpreted in fiber!

Astronomy and Transfiguration will be the foci of cjsquiggle’s NEWT.  She will be studying three nebulae, interpreting them through the creation of two twin sized afghans and a hat,  vanishing over 5200 yards of yarn in the process. Even for crochet, that is an amazing undertaking!  The crazypants is strong in this one!

Arithmancy (a very Ravenclaw subject!) features in our next NEWTlings proposal.  knittingIma with be combining it with Muggle Studies as she researches the unknown Muggle who created the decimal system.  To represent this base 10 system, she will be knitting 10 items, i.e. 5 pairs of socks. Which exact patterns she will be knitting is still a bit of a mystery, as 4 of them are from the Tour de Sock and one is yet to be released.  What an adventure!  I’m sure the results will be amazing!

Xamonster is studying MS as well, but in her NEWT, it will be combined with Charms.  She will be studying the applications of the spells Leviosa and Alohomora  in the Muggle world.  Two lace shawls and a mosaic work hat will reflect her studies. I am very curious to see what she can discover about the use of these Charms in Muggle society.

Ancient Runes and Defence Against the Dark Arts are the subjects of deetyblue’s proposal.  She will be spinning yarn for and knitting a Henslowe shawl for the Cruciatus part, and knitting a Danse Macabre shawl for the intricately charted pattern part.  It sounds like a challenge, but I am sure both shawls will be worth the effort!

Alethea is our final Ravenclaw NEWTling for fall term.  She will be studying AR as well, but she will be combining it with Arithmancy.  Her studies will produce five pairs of intricately charted socks in a variety of gorgeous colors.  I’m not a sock knitter myself, but I love to see others’ beautifully hand-knit socks.  I’m looking forward to these!

There you have it, our 14 Ravenclaw NEWTlings for fall 2017.  Good luck to all!  We will be cheering you on in your endeavors!

Advanced Studies Update -- NEWTling Edition, Part 1!

The term has not even started yet, and we have an amazing FOURTEEN NEWTlings busy crafting away at their projects!  A few are still pending approval at this writing, but I am sure they will all come through in the end. There are so many, I am going to divide them into two posts so they each get the attention they deserve!

For all projects, click on the student’s name to see the proposal.

First off is Frithuswith,  who is combining Ancient Runes and Herbology in her study of Bunolagus Boscamagicus,  (the rare and elusive jungle bunny) and its habitat. Her study will consist of two sweaters, a shawl, and three woven tea towels.  Good luck on your expedition, frithsuwith!

LeahandtheDragon is our next intrepid NEWTling.  She will be studying the subjects of Care of Magical Creatures and Potions for her NEWT.  Using only her collection of spindles (check out the link; she has a LOT of spindles!) Leah plans to hatch a number of magical eggs and ply the resulting yarn using a variety of techniques.  I can’t wait to see all the finished yarns!

bchapman1017 is also studying Potions for her NEWT, but she will be pairing it with Defence against the Dark Arts.  Her exploration of the Cruciatus curse will consist of a 4-color intarsia blanket using 2500 - 2800 yards of yarn.  I hope this one does not do you in, bchapman!

Our next NEWTling is kvaustin, who will be hatching some eggs for CoMC by vanishing over 3000 yards of yarn for Transfiguration.   She will be knitting a lace dress in light fingering and and a gorgeous knee-length swing vest (that I have added to my favorites!)  A lovely set of projects; I’m sure they will be spectacular!

Intallcotton is next in the line up. She will be studying COMC as well, but in this case, it will be combined with the History of Magic. In her examination of the interactions between humans and magical creatures, cotton will be creating three dimensional representations of two of the creatures as well as crafting some socks, mitts, and shawls representing the creatures and the humans who interacted with them.  With such a well researched beginning, I am sure she will very successful in her studies!

You would think our new Head Girl would be too busy to NEWT, but that is not stopping gwenschweitzer!  Her NEWT will be combining Astronomy and Potions through the study of the constellation Cassiopeia and a pair of mythological women.  Her two wraps should be a fitting representation of what she has learned for this, her very first NEWT.

Last for today is fricknfrack, who will be studying Ancient Runes and Charms. She will be knitting from patterns that use 31 unique symbols over 92 charts (!!) to create 6 lace scarves.  I’ve knitted several sampler scarves, and I am floored by this proposal.  It sounds like a huge challenge, but tremendous fun at the same time.  Looking forward to seeing them all!

That’s the first half of our Ravenclaw NEWT proposals.  Be sure to check back tomorrow to see the other half!

Advanced Studies Update -- OWL Mistress Edition!

lsgarner gave us a wonderful Advanced Studies wrap-up the other day but I wanted to call attention to some AS students who have reached a significant milestone this term.  I am speaking, of course, of those who have reached the coveted status of OWL Mistress!  We had an amazing FIVE Ravenclaws achieve OWL Mistress this term!

First up, Aridella. She knitted three gorgeous shawls, vanishing 1884.5 yards of yarn for her Transfiguration OWL:

Next,  BrineyDeep.   Briney saved Charms for last -- she has admitted she does not like knitting lace.  For someone with that preference, she has done a fantastic job on this pi shawl:

Cyprienne is our third OWL Mistress this term.  She opted for Transfiguration, too, vanishing a whopping 3880 (!) yards of yarn for this Log Cabin blanket:

folk comes next in the OWL Mistress line-up. She chose Herbology (Botanical Option) for her final OWL.  Her delicate baby blanket features an 872 stitch picot edging:

Last, but most certainly not least, our final OWL Mistress of the term is NoNeinNyet.  She squeaked on at the last day with her Muggle Studies cardigan:

Love that lace edging, NNN!

CONGRATULATIONS to all our amazing OWL Mistresses!

For all projects, click on the student’s name to see the complete OWL submission.